


Total Agony of Being in Love

by resthefuture



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Inspired by Love Actually, Middle School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:40:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21888307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resthefuture/pseuds/resthefuture
Summary: Selwyn Tarth is helpless. His daughter behaves strange lately and he has no clue what is going on.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 12
Kudos: 72





	Total Agony of Being in Love

**Author's Note:**

> Just a few warning for the beginning:  
> 1) One of the tags saying "inspired by Love actually", well, it's really heavy inspired by Love actually :D I just watch the movie yesterday, and I had to do this.  
> 2) Don't expect a deep plot here :D  
> 2) I'm not a native speaker, so there'll be mistakes, and for that, I'm deeply sorry.

Selwyn Tarth was feeling helpless once again. Not only he lost his beloved wife two months ago, but his daughter Brienne behaves strange lately. He understood it was not only his loss, losing a mother at the age of twelve must be hard for everybody, including his Brienne.

The two of them have a good relationship, at least Selwyn thought so. Brienne was always a very easy-going child, she loves all kind of sports and spends her time outside. But for the last two months, Brienne abandoned herself in her room. During the weekends she just locks herself in there for the whole day.

Selwyn started to worry. His daughter surely misses her mom, but it was already two months since Alynne died and Brienne still speaks to him 3 words per day.

The following day, on Friday afternoon, Selwyn decided to pick her up from school.

  
"So," Selwyn started when they sat in the nearby pastry shop Brienne liked so much. "What’s the problem, Bri?" he wanted to know. "Is it about Mum, or is there something else that bothers you?" Selwyn looked at his daughter’s sad face. "Is everything okay in school? Do they make fun of your height, again?" It took three months for her classmates to get used to the fact that Brienne was a few inches higher than the tallest guy in her year.

Brienne shook her head, not looking to his eyes while playing with her fork and banana cake.

"Brienne, can you give me any clue, please?" Selwyn sounded desperately. She raised her head and looked at him.  
"You really want to know?"  
"Yes, I really want to know," Selwyn confirmed, worrying what is this going to be about.  
"Even though you wouldn’t be able to help me?"  
"Yes," he nodded again. Brienne looked down at her shoes and then took a deep breath.   
  


"Well, the truth is I’m in love."

Selwyn was perplexed. "What?"  
"I know I should be thinking about Mum now, and believe me, I’m thinking about her, but-" she stopped for a moment. "The truth is I was in love even before she died and I can’t do anything about it," her daughter explained to him with a sad face.

Selwyn laughed so loudly that a few people sitting around looked at them with surprise. He probably could not get a better answer from Brienne. He could not be happier at that moment.

"Aren’t you a little young for that?" he asked her with a smile.  
"No?" Brienne said seriously looking at her father.  
"Oh, I have to admit I’m glad to hear that," Selwyn said.  
"Why?" she asked with a confusing look on her face.  
"Well, because I thought it would be something horrible," like doing heavy drugs or abusing at school...  
"Is there anything worse than the total agony of being in love?" Brienne asked him.  
"Uh," Selwyn ruffled his hair, "I guess you’re right."

~~~

When they got home that day, Brienne sat on their comfy sofa in the living room while Selwyn was marching through the room. 

"Okay, let’s do this! We have to figure it out. So, is it someone from school, right?" her dad asked and Brienne nodded.  
"And what does he - or she - feel about you?"   
"He," Brienne emphasized, "doesn’t even know who I am," she explained sadly. "And even if he did, he would despise me. He’s the coolest person in the school, everyone basically worships him, because he is handsome, funny, brave, smart-" she stooped herself there.

Selwyn sat on the sofa next to her. "Okay, okay," he patted her knee. "So, you’re fucked, huh?" 

~~~

A week after that, Selwyn was looking at old photos in his laptop, him, his wife and Brienne on their vacation in Volantis three years ago, when he heard steps coming from the kitchen. 

Brienne was sitting beside the kitchen island, having a glass of milk and a cookie.   
"Hey, Bri, what is going on? Can’t sleep?"  
"I got some really bad news today," she explained with sadness in her face.  
"What is it?"  
"Jaime is going to back to Westerlands in January," Brienne said.  
"Your boy is from Westerlands?" Selwyn wanted to know.  
"Yes, he’s from Casterly Rock, and he’s not my boy. And he is going back to Casterly to attend some boys boarding school. That’s the end of my life!"

Selwyn sighed. "Oh yeah, that is bad news." He looked at Brienne’s sade face. "Well now, we need Goldenhand and Blue Knight, and we need them now!"

_Blue Knight handed Oathkeeper to Goldenhand. "You gave it to me for purpose. I’ve achieved that purpose," she said. Goldenhand looked at her, eyes full of love.  
"It’s yours. It will always be yours," Goldenhand said, clearly speaking about his heart rather than the beautiful sword._

Selwyn stopped the movie and looked at his daughter. "You know Bri, I’m sure he’s great, but in the end, there isn’t just one person for each of us."  
"There was for Goldenhand and Blue Knight," Brienne countered. "There was Mum for you. And there’s for me. Jaime is the one!"

Selwyn smiled at her. Brienne was so cute when she spoke about her love for Jaime. "True enough," he agreed. 

~~~

Selwyn was working on his laptop when he heard the door open. "Daaad!" her daughter’s voice shouted and she appeared in the living room. "Dad! I have a plane!"  
He looked at Brienne. "Praise the Lord! So what’s it?"  
"Well, boys love actress, right? They’re on spotlight all the time," she explained with a happy face.   
"Yes, that’s true," Selwyn nodded. "Even when you play such an evil bitch as Swinton did in Narnia, people think you’re hot," he thought aloud. 

Brienne watched her father with a confused look. "Anyway, there is a big play at the end of the term, and Jaime’s in it. They need a girl who can fence. So I thought if I was in the play and did absolutely marvellously, there’s a chance that he might fall in love with me. So, what do you think?" she asked her father hopefully. 

"I think it’s brilliant! I think it’s great! Apart from little hiccup, though," Selwyn objected.  
"That I don’t know how to fence?"   
"Exactly, my dear."  
Brienne smiled widely. "Just a tiny, insignificant detail!" she told him.

And that’s how Selwyn started to drive his daughter to fencing practices every day. 

~~~

They had only three weeks to practise. The last week before the play, when they were having supper, Selwyn asked Brienne. "So, has he noticed you yet?"  
"No," Brienne admitted. "But you know, in the romance movies, you supposed to get together at the very end."  
Selwyn chuckled. "Of course."

"I’m sorry, I just realized I never asked you how your love life is going?" Brienne said and he looked at her with surprise.   
"Well, that ship has sailed with your mum," Selwyn explained. "Unless Rhaella Targaryen calls, in which case I send you to the boarding school as well," he said with a smile. For a second, he was afraid if he didn’t overstep, but Brienne just chuckled at took a sip from her coke.

~~~

The big day started early in the morning. Brienne refused to eat breakfast, she stayed in her room, practising her moves with the sword.   
"C’mon Bri! You need to eat something to have energy on the stage!"  
"I said I’m not hungry!" came a voice outside the door. 

Selwyn was sitting in the first row watching the school-play. He never saw Jaime, but he supposed he was the blonde boy playing the leading role, the brave knight that saved the city from the clutches of mad king.

At the end of the play, Brienne, Jaime and a couple of other kids who played knights as well shared a scene. Selwyn chuckled. He really admired how Mrs Tyrell changed the traditional gender roles in this play. Brienne together with Catelyn were knights, while some boys took the role of the maids.

In the very last scene, Jaime was sitting on the throne and Brienne with Cat came to the hero and pledge their swords to Jaime.   
"Thank you, my ladies," Jaime said. "It is a pleasure to have here such a beautiful knights on the court," he added and Selwyn could see the huge smile on his daughter’s face. But then Jaime turned around to the bunch of girls wearing pompous royal costumes and he pointed toward the pretty blonde girl. "And, you, my lady, you shall be my queen," he said to her.

Selwyn waited for Brienne beside the lockers. She appeared a few minutes after the applause. "Brienne!" he shouted, hugging her. "You did a fantastic job, my dear," he said. "Brilliant fencing!"

"Thanks, Dad," she said with a sad voice. "Plan didn’t work, though."  
"So tell him."  
Brienne gave him a confusing look. "Tell him what?"  
"Tell him that you love him."  
"No way, He is leaving tonight."

Selwyn put his hand on her shoulder. "Even better, then. You’ve got nothing to lose and if you don’t tell her, you’ll always regret it. I never told your mum enough. And believe me, I should have told her every moment I could." He remembered Alynne’s smile and eyes, which Brienne inherited from her, so at least he had feeling Alynne is still with him through their daughter.

"You’ve seen the movies, Bri. It ain’t over till it’s over!" He gave her an encouraging smile.  
Brienne nodded. "Okay, dad. Let’s go. Let’s go get the shit kicked out of us by love!"

When they reached the entrance door, Brienne spotted the black car leaving the school parking lot and Jaime’s blonde her inside. "Oh, that’s him!"  
"It’s okay, I know the shortcut to get to the airport!"

~~~

They reached the Kings Landing’s Airport within the fifteen minutes. "This is the final boarding call for passengers on flight B334X to Casterly Rock. Please, proceed to gate seven immediately," they heard in the departure hall.

They ran to the security check. "I am sorry, my daughter is actually not flying-"  
"Oh, you cannot go through without the boarding pass," the security check man controlled.  
"Not even to let the girl say goodbye to the love of her life?" Selwyn tried to persuade him. He looked at Brienne.  
"No," he answered firmly as other passenger came to him. "Your boarding pass, sir," he said."

Selwyn looked to her daughter. "I’m really sorry, Bri. Unless-" Selwyn looked at the guy standing next to them, trying to find his ticket. He looked back at Brienne. "Do you make a ran for it?"   
"You think I should do that?" Brienne asked him nervously. Selwyn nodded and Brienne quickly ran past the security check man. She passed the detection frame as well, but one of the policemen there noticed her so he started to chase her.

Brienne never ran so fast in her life. She was never a sprinter, but today her P.E. teacher Mr Selmy would be proud of her, she was sure of it. She ran through the duty-free zone to gate number seven. On her way, Brienne bumped to several people, but she didn’t care.

 _Jaime_ , she thought. _I need to find Jaime._

Then she spotted him through the glass partition. "Jaime!" she shouted but there was no chance he could hear her. He was showing his boarding pass to the woman, almost in the plane.

Now, or never.

Brienne ran through the partition. "Jaime?" All the four of them, Jaime, his dad, his brother and his twin-sister turned to her.   
"Brienne?" Jaime said confusedly.   
"I thought you didn’t know my name," Brienne said with surprise.

Jaime smiled at her like she is such a fool. "Of course I know your name, Brienne." She then noticed the policemen behind her back.  
"Oh, boy. I’ve gotta go," she told him apologetically. Jaime smiled again.   
"Why are you here, Brienne?" he wanted to know.

"Eh, you know, just wanted to tell you that-" she stopped herself.  
"Tell me what?" _Oh god, you came all the way here to tell him!_  
"To tell you that I love you!" she said quickly and her cheeks went red. 

Jaime gave her one of his beautiful smiles and he stepped closer to her. "Jaime," his father said. "We need to go now," he informed him.  
"Sorry, Brienne, I’m in a hurry, a bit," Jaime explained and Brienne nodded. "But I see you in January, right?" 

"I thought you’re staying in Westerlands?"  
"No, I’ll be back for the new term," he said and then he gave her a small peck on her cheek. "Merry Christmas, Brienne," Jaime said and then followed his family to plane. 

Selwyn saw the policemen walking her daughter towards him. When they got close, he spotted the huge grin on her face. Brienne gave him a thumbs up. Selwyn hugged her. 

"Ice cream for the hero of the day?" he asked.  
"You bet!"

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to know what you think!


End file.
